Clean environment’ll prevent asthma, says don

Nigerians have been advised to clean their surroundings to reduce asthma risk.

A consultant chest physician at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos (CMUL), Dr Cyril Chukwu, gave the advice in Lagos.

He told The Nation: “Many patients I attended to said they did not experience asthma attack while abroad. This is due to their clean environment.”

Chukwu said most developed countries pay attention to environmental sanitation and tree planting, among other ecological beautification.

Good life, he said, will help an asthmatic stay healthy, adding that the poor status of major cities is responsible for their unhealthy index.

“Things are not working in Nigeria because some gaps need to be filled. When the asthmatics get back, they face the problem of power outage. Frustration alone can trigger an asthma attack before we now talk about unhealthy environment,” he said.

The medic said industries should be regulated in Nigeria to prevent environmental pollution, saying the latter can also cause asthma.

“The more advanced a country is, the more civilised it is, the more cases of asthma it has. But the management of asthma in those countries is a lot easier than in Nigeria, among other underdeveloped countries,” he said.

He said despite the low rate of asthma in Nigeria compared to those of industralised countries, its management is poor. “We do not have as much asthma as the industrialised world but the majority of asthmatics overseas live a better life because of other things they enjoy. Our small number of asthmatic relative to developed countries is no cause for happiness because our small number suffers more, they die early and live a more miserable life. The fact that our number is small is no good news,” Chukwu said.

He said if Nigeria has better infrastructure, such as industrialised countries, like United States (US) and United Kingdom (UK), among others, the impact of asthma would not be felt.

Ignorance and poverty, Chukwu said, are two factors which worsen asthma in underdeveloped or third world countries. They contribute to poor environment, he added.

He said life will be better for the asthmatic when they have better understanding of what a quality lifestyle should be, stressing that ignorance and poverty have been the root of many problems, including asthma.

The don said there is expertise to treat the disease, adding: “But the main question is, are we moving in the right direction? We cannot get there overnight. It should be a gradual process.”

He described asthma as a lung disorder that interferes with breathing.

“The disease can cause serious, recurring episodes of wheezing and breathlessness, known as asthma attacks,” he said.

Explaining what an asthmatic experiences, he said, they usually have chronic inflammation in the tubes that carry air to the lungs.

The disease, he said, has no known cure, adding that there are effective strategies to manage or control it.

The don identified coughing, wheezing, and chest tightness as symptoms of asthma.